Published: Monday, August 26, 2013 at 3:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Sunday, August 25, 2013 at 11:44 p.m.

In June 2011, only a couple of months after the April 27 tornado that hit Tuscaloosa, two Boston-based filmmakers decided to drive through Tuscaloosa as part of a two-month road trip. Astonished at the damage they saw, they started filming — trying to capture Tuscaloosa’s story.

The culmination of their work, a film called “The Druid City,” won the alumni award at the Redstone Film Festival at Boston University, was showed at the Boston International Film Festival, at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles and was featured Saturday at the Birmingham Film Festival.

On Sunday, the 24-minute film was shown to a small gathering of about a dozen people on the campus of the University of Alabama.

“I don’t think we knew what we were doing when we started filming this,” said one of the filmmakers, Max Esposito, who said that he and fellow filmmaker Kristyn Uranday wanted to drive through Tuscaloosa on their way back to Boston. “We thought we would check it out as we came back through, but we found something special here, that there is a story here we could try to tell.”

The original thought was doing a film about the tornado and Tuscaloosa’s recovery, tied in with the city rallying around football, said Uranday. But, the two quickly realized there was much more to the story than football and a college town hit by a tornado.

“We thought it would be one of those uplifting sports stories, but it was very obvious about how resilient a the spirit of the community was about building back and helping each other,” Uranday said.

The short film opens up with picturesque shots of expansive oaks and shading the forest floor and the peaceful Black Warrior River while a deep baritone male voice talks poetically about the oaks and the Druids, from which Tuscaloosa earned its moniker. The shots of nature are quickly juxtaposed against pictures of the tornado’s destruction, the ruins it left in its path, the wrecked buildings and bare trees that dotted the landscape. The filmmakers weaved the stories of survivors into the film, showing how people survived and overcame the storm. Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox and meteorologist James Spann are also featured, talking about the storm and Tuscaloosa’s recovery.

“Everyone here had their own story,” Uranday said.

“I feel there are so many more elements we didn’t even touch on,” added Esposito. “If we could, we would have lived here for a year.”

Daniel Roth, a senior at UA, said the film captured the spirit of the storm.

“That definitely means a lot to us, that it was very accurate,” said Roth, who was working in UA’s office of student media when the tornado hit on April 27, 2011. “It captured the entire thing.”

Gary Lewis, owner of Rammer Jammer’s, was featured in the film.

“(The film) overwhelmingly brought back the memories of April 27, but in a very positive way,” said Lewis, who added that on April 27 he was “hypnotized” by the sight of the tornado when it came through near campus. While watching the film, he said he was “rehypnotized again along the way.”

Now that the film festival season is over, “The Druid City” will likely be put on the Internet for people to share, Uranday said, but it’s not available yet.

<p>In June 2011, only a couple of months after the April 27 tornado that hit Tuscaloosa, two Boston-based filmmakers decided to drive through Tuscaloosa as part of a two-month road trip. Astonished at the damage they saw, they started filming — trying to capture Tuscaloosa's story. </p><p>The culmination of their work, a film called “The Druid City,” won the alumni award at the Redstone Film Festival at Boston University, was showed at the Boston International Film Festival, at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles and was featured Saturday at the Birmingham Film Festival. </p><p>On Sunday, the 24-minute film was shown to a small gathering of about a dozen people on the campus of the University of Alabama. </p><p>“I don't think we knew what we were doing when we started filming this,” said one of the filmmakers, Max Esposito, who said that he and fellow filmmaker Kristyn Uranday wanted to drive through Tuscaloosa on their way back to Boston. “We thought we would check it out as we came back through, but we found something special here, that there is a story here we could try to tell.”</p><p>The original thought was doing a film about the tornado and Tuscaloosa's recovery, tied in with the city rallying around football, said Uranday. But, the two quickly realized there was much more to the story than football and a college town hit by a tornado.</p><p>“We thought it would be one of those uplifting sports stories, but it was very obvious about how resilient a the spirit of the community was about building back and helping each other,” Uranday said. </p><p>The short film opens up with picturesque shots of expansive oaks and shading the forest floor and the peaceful Black Warrior River while a deep baritone male voice talks poetically about the oaks and the Druids, from which Tuscaloosa earned its moniker. The shots of nature are quickly juxtaposed against pictures of the tornado's destruction, the ruins it left in its path, the wrecked buildings and bare trees that dotted the landscape. The filmmakers weaved the stories of survivors into the film, showing how people survived and overcame the storm. Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox and meteorologist James Spann are also featured, talking about the storm and Tuscaloosa's recovery. </p><p>“Everyone here had their own story,” Uranday said. </p><p>“I feel there are so many more elements we didn't even touch on,” added Esposito. “If we could, we would have lived here for a year.”</p><p>Daniel Roth, a senior at UA, said the film captured the spirit of the storm. </p><p>“That definitely means a lot to us, that it was very accurate,” said Roth, who was working in UA's office of student media when the tornado hit on April 27, 2011. “It captured the entire thing.”</p><p>Gary Lewis, owner of Rammer Jammer's, was featured in the film. </p><p>“(The film) overwhelmingly brought back the memories of April 27, but in a very positive way,” said Lewis, who added that on April 27 he was “hypnotized” by the sight of the tornado when it came through near campus. While watching the film, he said he was “rehypnotized again along the way.”</p><p>Now that the film festival season is over, “The Druid City” will likely be put on the Internet for people to share, Uranday said, but it's not available yet. </p><p> </p><p>Reach Lydia Seabol Avant at 205-722-0222 or lydia.seabolavant@tuscaloosanews.com.</p>